The proposed work will extend the PI's recent findings that recovering alcoholics differ from controls on specific components of visuospatial processing. Certain visuospatial functions are impaired while others are spared. Moreover, a similar pattern emerges when intoxicated non-alcoholics are tested even at a relatively low dose of alcohol (0.6 ml EtOH/kg). The proposed studies use new procedures developed for investigating normal cognitive functioning. These techniques are applied to explore specific effects of alcohol use and aubse on cognitive components of visuospatial functioning. A comprehensive series of experiments is proposed which examine alterations produced in perception of spatial relationships by acute and chronic alcohol intake. These procedures will allow a careful examination of alcohol's acute and long-term effects on l) orientation and form perception, 2) spatial analysis of stimuli presented over time, 3) memory for different properties of a form and 4) processing visual material associated with hemisphere specialization. The results of these experiments have implications for outcome studies, assignment of patients to treatment, and for suggesting biological markers of alcoholism.
